Johnson wins at Martinsville, leads points

Sunday

Oct 28, 2012 at 12:01 AMOct 28, 2012 at 6:59 PM

MARTINSVILLE, Va. — Surprising no one, Jimmie Johnson left his little gold mine, Martinsville Speedway, with another treasure chest. First place in the Tums Fast Relief 500 was worth $202,511, but another Sprint Cup championship, his sixth, would be priceless.

Three races remain. Johnson’s got the points lead. It isn’t much, but for the first time in a while, Brad Keselowski, who finished sixth, is chasing him. No. 2 ( Keselowski ) trails by two.

Monte Dutton

MARTINSVILLE, Va. — Surprising no one, Jimmie Johnson left his little gold mine, Martinsville Speedway, with another treasure chest. First place in the Tums Fast Relief 500 was worth $202,511, but another Sprint Cup championship, his sixth, would be priceless.

Three races remain. Johnson’s got the points lead. It isn’t much, but for the first time in a while, Brad Keselowski, who finished sixth, is chasing him. No. 2 ( Keselowski ) trails by two.

“Just because you don’t qualify well, it doesn’t mean you don’t have a fast race car,” said Johnson, who could afford to be charitable. “Anything could happen. We’ve done a nice job to put us in the points lead. … We’re ready to race him under any conditions.”

“We can’t keep on just surviving,” he said. “Surviving isn’t going to win the championship.”

With races in Fort Worth, Phoenix and Homestead (Fla.) remaining in the season, it may not be a two-man race, but that’s the way it looks. Clint Bowyer finished fifth and is third in the standings, but his deficit, 24 points, is considerable at this point.

“What it does to my mind is … I’m not smiling,” Johnson said. “What was it? Electrical failure? It could happen to me next week. I’m not eliminating anybody.”

Hamlin trails by 49 points. Johnson wasn’t eliminating Hamlin, but Hamlin wrote his own chances off.

“One of these days it’s going to be our time,” he said. “It’s just not going to be right now.”

Keselowski actually held the lead with less than 20 laps to go, but it wasn’t because his Dodge was fastest. It was because he didn’t pit when Johnson and others did. Keselowski clung to the lead for five laps. Johnson finally passed him between turns three and four on lap 486. Then the flood gates opened, and Kyle Busch, Kahne and Jeff Gordon followed Johnson past Keselowski .

With nine laps remaining, Earnhardt and Carl Edwards tangled in turns one and two. The chain reaction began with Edwards’ Ford being hit from behind by Sam Hornish Jr.’s Dodge. That contact sent Edwards’ car into Earnhardt’s.

Johnson took the lead at the outset, too — hardly surprising since he qualified fastest — and remained there the first 66 laps before yielding to teammate Gordon. No one significant crashed in the first 100 laps, though yellow flags waved after failed right-front tires sent the cars of Michael McDowell (lap 45) and David Stremme (97) careening into relatively minor contacts with the track’s cushioned walls in separate incidents.

Travis Kvapil’s Toyota marked the third such incident on lap 126, though his was unrelated to tire trouble.

Keselowski slowly worked his way up from 32nd starting position. Following the third caution flag, Keselowski restarted in 15th position at lap135. Meanwhile, Brian Vickers wrested the lead from Gordon on lap146. A Kyle Busch spin in turn three brought out the fourth caution on lap 149.

Hamlin, who had lost track position due to an early pit-road penalty, worked his way up to second. A turn-two shunt involving Marcos Ambrose and Kvapil slowed the pace again at lap 212.

Clint Bowyer ousted Gordon from the lead on lap 226. Hendrick Chevys thus became aligned in second through fifth with Gordon, Johnson, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kasey Kahne. Kevin Harvick’s Chevy drop-kicked Kurt Busch’s into the turn-four wall on lap 233. Johnson and Bowyer conducted a side-by-side duel for the lead that lasted for more than three laps, Bowyer finally clearing him on lap 238.

Bowyer then dominated the race up until a costly pit-road mistake — he stalled the Toyota while attempting to pull away — on lap 349.

Harvick’s engine expired on lap 475, setting up the finish. Kyle Busch finished second, Kahne third and, in a surprise, Aric Almirola fourth in the Ford carrying the name of Richard Petty, Martinsville’s all-time leader with 15 victories.